Methods for European Citizenship Education and Innovation in Youth Participation

ACDC participated between 11th -19th September 2009 in Kljuc, Bosnia-Herzegovina in a Training Course about European citizenship.

Content and aim
European Citizenship and participation of youth are main topics in the Youth in Action programme of the European Union. Nevertheless there is a lack of concrete material, methodical hints and practical guidance for youth workers dealing with the issues. The aim of the TC is to bring together this target group to discuss the meaning of European Citizenship, what citizenship means and what an active citizenships needs. Communicating intercultural differences, similarities and values that European youngsters have in common will lead to the question, if there are more or less identifications with Europe; and where can the reasons therefore be found. Working with the results the goal is to communicate methods for motivating and involving young people, means possible ways to break the issues down for the practice in international youth work and to come up with creative ideas and support for practitioners in the international youth field. The main questions to deal are how can the concepts of European Citizenship and youth participation be transferred into practice and how can we make sense of the concepts during international youth projects and in our everyday work with young people? To reach the aims and objectives the TC will include different main learning units and working modules. On the end of the TC the participants will develop own proposals for future activities on the themes European Citizenship and youth participation.
From there the main aim of this TC is to support the professional development of youth workers and youth leaders by extending their competencies to integrate European Citizenship and youth participation within their projects and practice with special focus on the situation and the needs in South Eastern Europe. The participants will discuss the meaning of European Citizenship, what citizenship means and what an active citizenships needs. Communicating intercultural differences, similarities and values that European youngsters have in common will lead to the question, if there are more or less identifications with Europe; and where can the reasons therefore be found. Working with the results the goal is to communicate methods for motivating and involving young people, means possible ways to break the issues down for the practice in international youth work and to come up with creative ideas and support for practitioners in the international youth field.

Summarizing the objectives of the TC are:
• To develop creative and attractive ways of citizenship education through youth work
• To extend the participants knowledge and understanding of Europe, citizenship and young people
• To critically and creatively reflect about the role and relevance of Europe and European citizenship for young people andfor youth work today and in the future
• To enable participants to reflect upon and to address key values related to European citizenship
• To increase the participants professional competence in developing and evaluating projects with young people empowering them or raising their own understanding and practice of European citizenship
• To increase understanding of youth workers about active youth participation both in youth work and in decision making processes
• To further develop the participants skills and abilities, their translation into and implications for youth work practice
• To acquire competence in dealing with the Youth in Action programme and to equip the participants with the knowledge and competence necessary to make use of it